Multi-Tasking Leads to Lower Productivity

Interested in a free 25+ eBook on the 7 Wastes? Please DOWNLOAD HERE.

There is a predisposition for firms and people to think that multi-tasking is heroic, leads to more productive employees and, is generally, becoming more and more the accepted norm in business. All of this would be nice, except that multi-tasking actually leads to lower productivity and lower morale.

To belabor my point, here is a recent job posting I found on monster by doing a search on “multi-tasking”:

Medical Claims Coordinator: Showcase your Multi-Tasking Skills!

The above is the title for a job posting for a large insurer.

Learning from Little’s Law

Queueing Theory leads to a fundamental theorem, called Little’s Law: for a queueing system in steady state, the average length of the queue is equivalent to the average arrival rate multiplied by the average waiting time. in other words,

L = λW

Put another way,

Throughput = (WIP / CT)

Where WIP is Work-in-Process and CT is Cycle Time.

What the equation above means, then, is that as we reduce WIP, we can increase Throughput; or, as we reduce Cycle Time, we can also increase Throughput.  Or, we can simultaneously reduce WIP and reduce Cycle Time, with a combined effect of higher throughput.

A common result for multi-taskers is that simultaneous projects or items are spawned.  Multi-threaded is sometimes the analogy here.  But, unlike machines, people have a difficult time completing multi-threaded processes.  The end result is that projects and efforts are not complete, time runs shorter and shorter, and demands continue to pile up.  Think of everything I’ve just described as Work-in-Process (WIP).  So, using Little’s Law above, as WIP grows, then Throughput decreases.

Translation: As we multi-task, we start several projects, complete only a few, WIP grows, Cycle Time eventually lengthens, and we are less productive.

Join the above statement with the fact that as we multi-task, then return to an old task, there is a learning curve involved in getting acquainted again with the context.  This can sometimes lead to confusion, lower morale, and dismay for some people.  This is especially true for software, wherein an engineer is engaged in code, but is pulled to do something else.  To re-engage requires time, thought, and a lot of effort.  This ultimately leads to frustration and poses significant risk to the software project not completing by the required date.

A Proposed Solution

I’m not advocating that we only do one thing at a time — although in some industries, that is ideal and necessary.  Some situations require that we do some things simultaneously.  I propose that the number of items that a person seeks to start is of the right batch size, control WIP, and keep an eye of the Cycle Time from end-to-end for each item started.  Also guard against more items entering the queue, by placing them in a buffer, staging area, for prioritization and triage.  Once treated in the buffer and a project has left the queue, then pull from the buffer the prioritized item.  Common sense, but not common practice — to be sure.

Conclusion

Multi-tasking and its many flavors, such as Task-switching, the near-neighbor of multi-tasking, leads to a similar effect of lower productivity and it impacts morale.  Multi-tasking leads to higher WIP, longer and longer Cycle Times, which both lead to lower throughput or productivity, and that impacts morale and the performance of the firm.  To control this, I propose implementing a system that enforces the right number of projects to be worked on at a single time and a procedure for treating new projects as they enter a queue.  All the while, keeping an eye out for the Cycle Time of completion of projects and also amount in the queue.

As already mentioned: my proposal is a common sense solution; but, it’s not common practice.

search terms for this article:

multitasking effects on productivity, multitasking reduces productivity, multitasking productivity, mult tasking, lower productivity, multitasking affects productivity, multitasking quotes, quotes on multitasking, if you increase wip then ct, impact of multitasking on productivity, effects of multitasking on productivity, effect of multitasking on productivity, multi tasking theory, decrease multitasking, wip queuing theory, ct = wip/tp, maths on lead time throughput, productivity task switching, productivity vs throughput, multitasking littles law, multitasking vs productivity exercise, ct wip tp, little\s law wip, multitasking theory, effects of multitasking to employees performance, multi tasking skill quotes, reduce productivity to increase productivity, reducing productivity, related laws and theories for multitasking, raffle throughput time, sample phrases for productivity through prioritization or multitasking, reduced cycle time increased throughput and productivity in software, reduce cycle time for workers, reduce wip lead time little, negative effects of multitasking result, reduce of productivity, quotes about multitasking, productivity impact of multi-tasking, negative effects of multitasking on productivity, productivity little law, productivity loss multi tasking, productivity task switching impact, productivity vs multitasking, productivity multitasking, push queue productivity, queue theory reduce wip, queuing theory exercises, queuing theory medicine computed tomography, quotes about Multi-tasking, negativity reduces productivity, sample proposal on multitasking exercise, suggestions to reduce low productivity, time theory and productivity, what are the effects or constraints of multi tasking, what are the top things that lower productivity, what do you mean by lower throughput time, what happens to ct when you increase wip level, what happens to work in progress when you increase throughput, What is decrease in productivity, what is mult tasking, what is Mult-tasking, why is there a decrease in productivity in companies, wip cycle time throughput exercises, wip leads to, wip little law increase throughput reduce wip, wip multitask, WIP VS LEAD TIME, time multitasking job, throughput= wip x ct, throughput wip, switching between tasks lower productivity, task productivity wip, task switching exercises, theory about multitasking, task switching principle, task switching productivity, task switching theory, the effects of multitasking as a productivity, the effects of productivity of multitasking, the littles law exercises, theory of constraints multitasking, theory of constraints multitasking exercise, theory of multitasking, theory on employees multi-tasking, theory on multi-tasking, work in progress development productivity, multitaskingproductivity com, at what point does multi-tasking become counter productive?, increasing ct productivity, increasing throughput think time littles, INPACT ON JOBS MULTI TASK, law of lead time, law of shorter time length versus productivity, lead time and productivity, little principle productivity, Little WIP CT, littles law flow rate, little\s law for switchiing time, little\s law productivity, little\s law traduccion

Related Articles: